As for God, his way is perfect; the word of Jehovah is tried he is a shield to all that trust in him.
Psalm 18 is David's song of praise after God rescued him from Saul and from all his enemies. Halfway through, he stops describing his own escape and turns to describe God: God's way, God's word, and God's protection. Each one has been tested.
David wrote as a rescued man. Commentators also read the psalm as pointing past him to someone greater.
Here God's King is presented as victorious at last. David composed this Psalm "When delivered from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul." David had often been in danger of death, but he lived to prove deliverance out of all his troubles. Yet his history and personal salvation is not all that the Psalm celebrates. It really speaks of One greater than he... In David's case it was deliverance on earth before death. In the Lord's case He will appear triumphant as the risen One.
Verse 30 sits at a hinge. First, what God has been to those who trust Him. Then, the display of His power.
God's word had stood good all through, and the LORD Himself was a shield to those who trusted in Him. But now He gives strength and victory to His anointed for Israel from verse 29 to the end.
(Older translations read "tried" where the ESV has "proves true," and "trust in Him" where the ESV has "take refuge in him.")
People question God's timing and His methods. The psalm answers them with a contrast.
People may criticize God for delaying His judgment, or for the way He judges. Yet, "As for God, His way is perfect" (v. 30). Man's way is always crooked and twisted — a great contrast to the way of a God who rules over all and knows all. Closely tied to His way is "the word of the Lord." Every age has proved it stable, solid and dependable. And when His judgment is about to fall, what comfort there is in His word: "He is a shield to all who trust in Him." So His judgment is not against believers; it is on their behalf.
The middle clause says God's word has stood the test. One writer traces that quality back to the One who spoke it.
The Bible must be perfect. These are God's words, so they could not be anything else. All His works, in creation or in redemption, carry the stamp of perfection. "The law [or teaching] of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;" and "His way is perfect." (Ps. 18:30; Ps. 19:7.) We read again, "The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times," and that "Every word of God proves true." (Ps. 12:6; Prov. 30:5.) The Bible must be perfect, because... it comes from God.
God does not hand out a shield. He is the shield. Faith is what brings a person behind it.
Having its rest in God, faith brings His strength within the heart of the believer. God so becomes Himself the Shield of the soul that trusts in Him. He has made Himself, in Christ, our everlasting Refuge and Defence. Doctrinal knowledge is no shield. Faith is; and when it works, it brings the heart to depend completely on God.
Saying these words and meaning them takes time. One writer traces four steps a soul climbs to reach them.
Resignation. That is the lowest. Acceptance. That is not the highest, but it is one step above. Justification — being able to declare God right. To adore Him for everything He does. That is the highest.
The same writer pictures God as a metalworker who decides the heat and the blows. This confession belongs to people under pressure.
It is very precious to know that God has the metal in His own hand. We see people putting heavy strokes where they should be light, and light where they should be heavy; few where there should be many, and many where there should be few. We are in divine hands, not in one another's. God once offered David a choice of three things. David said, "Let me fall into the hand of the Lord." He would rather be in God's hands than in the hands of the devil or his enemies. We are in the Father's hands. "The Father Himself loves you." He knows how long to keep His bit of gold in the crucible, and when to put it under the hammer.
- Tested, not theoretical. David sings this after God rescued him from Saul and every enemy. Commentators see it reaching beyond David to Christ, risen and victorious.
- Perfect way. Man's way is crooked and twisted. God's delays and God's judgments are perfect.
- Tried word. The word carries the stamp of the One who spoke it: silver purified seven times, dependable in every age.
- Living shield. Protection is not a thing God hands over. He Himself is the shield, and faith shelters behind Him.
- Adoring heart. Resignation, acceptance, declaring God right, then adoration. The crucible and the hammer are in the Father's hands, and that is where this verse is learned.
For who is +God save Jehovah? and who is a rock if not our God?
David sings this song after God rescued him from his enemies. In the middle of it he asks two questions that push past thanks for one rescue: who God is, and why He alone is a rock.
Two Hebrew names lie behind the question. One writer explains what they mean and where the question comes from.
Elohim is, as often noted, the common name for God. It presents Him as the Divine Being that people, simply as people, must deal with, and the One they must answer to. It is a plural word. The singular is Eloah... Pagan nations sometimes used the word for their gods. No doubt this is where the question in Psalm 18 comes from: "For who is God (Eloah), but the LORD (Jehovah)? And who is a rock, except our God (Elohim)?" That is, the true Eloah was Jehovah, and the only rock was Elohim.
Commentators differ on why this name for God is plural. The same writer lays out both views.
Writers explain the use of the plural word (Elohim) in different ways. Some argue that it is simply a plural of excellence, which Hebrew usage allows. In this form the word conveys the excellency or the perfections of the One spoken of. Others hold that God intended it to set out the Trinity. That is the unity of the Godhead in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In support of this, notice the language of Genesis 1:26: "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.'"
A rock stands for what will not move. One writer shows that the same picture makes a claim about Christ.
"And who is a Rock except our God?" The rock is the symbol of solid stability. 1 Corinthians 10:4 tells us, "that Rock was Christ," a clear testimony that Christ is God.
David does not say "a rock" but "our God." One writer takes the same words from Hannah and draws out what "our" carries.
Then she said, "there is no rock like our God." Look at Deuteronomy 32 and see how often that chapter speaks of God as a Rock. Then think of the other rocks — the rocks of the pagan nations, their idols, their support. Think of the tremendous contrast between God and them. This was what Hannah was saying. "Our God," she said. This showed some sense of relationship in her soul. She thought of the stability of God, the permanency of God. Nobody could overthrow God, nothing could overthrow God.
The verse opens with "For." It rests on what came just before: God's perfect way and His proven word.
Men may criticize God for His delay in judgment or for the way in which He judges, yet, "As for God, His way is perfect" (v. 30). Man's way is always crooked and perverse, a great contrast to the way of a sovereign and all-wise God. Vitally connected with His way is "the word of the Lord," proven through all the ages as stable, solid, dependable in every way.
Everyone leans on something. Only one of those supports is still standing at the end.
Men may choose gods of their own today. But when judgment falls they will face the solemn fact: "There is one God." He is the God who was "manifest in flesh," the God to whom they find themselves responsible, the one solid Rock of ages who remains when all else fails.
That solidity is not proved only at the end. Each rescue along the way is a fresh reminder of it.
In the ebb and flow of things here, God alone is what His name Jehovah declares — the One who abides... the settled confidence and security of faith is that God is a rock. Every rescue in your life is one more fresh assurance of this. The refuge stays ours while the storm is still raging.
One writer points to men in a prison cell, with their backs still bleeding.
Look at those poor men, with the blood clotted on their backs, in a damp, dirty, dingy prison cell, Yet there is not a murmur. They are so above self that they can pray and then praise. "As for God, His way is perfect." God says, "Now that you adore Me for all My ways, I will come in for you."
- Question — Other nations had their own word for their gods. David's two questions leave one answer: the true Eloah is the Lord, and the only rock is our God.
- Rock — A rock stands for solid stability. 1 Corinthians 10:4 gives the same title to Christ, a testimony that He is God.
- Ours — "Our God" is the language of relationship. The heathen had their rocks too; the difference is that nothing can overthrow this One.
- Because — The claim rests on the verse before: His way is perfect and His word is proven. So the refuge holds while the storm is still raging.
- Proof — Judgment day will settle the question for everyone. Until then, faith settles it in prison cells, where beaten men still pray and praise.
The God who girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect,
Psalm 18 is David's song after God rescued him from Saul and from every enemy. By verse 32 he stops describing the rescue and names its source: God armed him, and God shaped his road. (The writers quoted here use an older translation. It reads "makes my way perfect" where the ESV has "made my way blameless.")
This line grew out of hard experience. One writer traces it back to the day Saul offered David his own armour for the fight with the Philistine — an offer that would have handed Saul the credit:
Saul could then have said, "It was my armour and my sword that was superior to the armour and the sword of the Philistine." But God watched over His servant who trusted Him, and He overruled everything. So David's soul stored up a blessed experience of God's faithfulness and power. At the right moment it came out as worship of God.
God does the arming. So the strength that meets our difficulties is not our own:
Christ's strength really does carry us through everything, no matter what the difficulties are. We shall feel them, we may groan under them; but when I can say with David, "It is God that girds me with strength" (Ps. 18), the enemy may come against me — "a bow of steel is broken by my arms." The Lord made him triumph over all.
That strength comes with a condition. It reaches the weak, not the self-sufficient:
The path of strength, then, is being made aware of our own weakness. Divine strength — which will never be a supplement to the strength of the flesh — may then come in. So there is entire dependence, and the positive coming in of Christ's power to work through us.
Two verses earlier David says God's way is perfect. Here he says the same of his own path, and the second follows from the first. Writing about believers beaten and jailed, one commentator holds the two together:
Look at those poor men, with the blood clotted on their backs, in a damp, dirty, dingy prison cell. Yet not a murmur — they are so far above self that they can pray and then praise. "As for God, His way is perfect" (Ps. 18:30-32). God says, "Now that you adore Me for all My ways, I will come in for you." "It is God that girds me with strength, and makes my way perfect." My way is in exact correspondence with His way. He goes on until the poor weak fingers are so strong that they can break the bow of steel. There is not a difficulty I am not superior to.
The verse gives two gifts, not one: strength for the man, and a prepared path. One writer applies David's words to Elijah, then draws a practical conclusion:
As David sang, so Elijah might also have sung, "It is God that girds me with strength, and makes my way perfect" (Ps. 18:32). Truly, our God always prepares the way for us, as He also prepares us for the way. Why then should we doubt Him? Though we may well distrust ourselves, not occasionally, but always.
Commentators read this psalm as going beyond David to the Lord Jesus, who lived as a man wholly dependent on God:
As earlier in the psalm, the Lord Jesus speaks as the perfectly dependent Man. He says, "It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect" (v. 32). Just as God's way is perfect (v. 30), so He makes the way of the Lord Jesus, as Man, perfect.
Another writer calls the giver the Mighty One, and points to what His girding produces:
This Mighty One girds with strength the One whose place is still, therefore, one of loving service to Him. He makes His way perfect, as His own way is perfect. So His progress is uninterrupted.
- Cause. God's own way is perfect (v. 30). That is why a man's way can be perfect too: "my way is in exact correspondence with His way."
- Gift. God gives the strength; we never work it up. It never tops up the strength of the flesh. It comes in where a man learns his own weakness.
- Preparation. God prepares the way for us, and He prepares us for the way. So distrust yourself always, and never doubt Him.
- Pattern. The Lord Jesus speaks these words first, as the Man who depended fully on God. Nothing interrupts His progress.
- Result. Years of trusting God store up an experience that breaks out as worship at the right moment. And no difficulty is greater than the man God arms.